19th Annual Women’s Memorial March

The 19th Annual Feb 14th Womens Memorial March takes place on Sunday, February 14 2010 and begins at 12pm.

At noon, we gather at the Carnegie Community Centre Theatre, 401 Main Street (corner Hastings, Vancouver) where family members speak in remembrance. At 1 pm, the march takes to the streets and proceeds through the Downtown Eastside, with stops to commemorate where women were last seen or found; speeches by community activists at the police station; a healing circle at Oppenheimer Park around 3 pm; and finally a community feast at the Japanese Language Hall.

In January 1991 a woman was murdered on Powell Street in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family. This woman’s murder in particular was the catalyst that moved women into action. Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Coast Salish Territories.

Nineteen years later, the march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women. Increasing deaths of many vulnerable women from the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones, and community members with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Over 3000 women are known to have gone missing or been murdered in Canada since the 1970s. Last year, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued this statement: “Hundreds of cases involving aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in the past two decades have neither been fully investigated nor attracted priority attention.”

Please respect the memorial march and the leadership of those organizing it. This event is organized and led by women in the DTES because women, especially Indigenous women, face physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence on a daily basis. This is a memorial not a protest; it is a deeply emotional time for family members and women affected especially in Vancouver’s DTES. We ask that you please do not bring your banners, flags, or leaflets as the Women’s Memorial March carries five banners only to honour the women.

The February 14th Women’s Memorial March is an opportunity to come together to grieve the loss of our beloved sisters, remember the women who are still missing, and to dedicate ourselves to justice. Please join us (all genders welcome) and we thank you for your support of the Women’s Memorial March.

It’s very sad how we try to let people know how we strive,
struggle with issues outside the gov’t., but; they still want
everything we earned and live for. As native woman, it’s up
to us to make us stronger and have justice on our side.
I have lost a number of sisters from abusive situations, from alcohol to forget, catching rides from strangers, and just being themselves. They believed in our system as strong will minded woman and without us. This world would
strive! As sisters, I know we have to stand together for the sake of our children and our children’s children. For our
rights, civil rights as Native Americans and Indian people!

we are having a womens/female sweat on feb 13,
this lodge is a 2 spirit lodge/ non 2 spirits weclcome. our lodge is close to capliano reserve. in the forrest on the south side of welch st in north vancouver. starts at 12.30. bring some food we have a stove to cook on.,
the lodge is to the left /east of the parked black rav 4.
come early if you wish we have a medicine wheel on site also.
any questions feel free to contact me. 604 971 0071/
mitakuye oyasin…. bonnie

peace and hope to all women and children
are there any women out there who would like to
follow the model matriarchy detailed in the book
iroquois women by w.m. spittal, put out by reserve in ontario.

end to violence could be soon if we respect the wisdom of our grandmothers but the old ways, when women owned the land and the children belonged to the mothers women clan.

my liltle sister jumped off the bridge at 36 y.o a few years ago, we are told but she could have been dumped there by those who sexually abused her as a child, aand shot her in the leg at l0 y.o. my brother and father.

she had written a book of her life, and this needed to be
shut up.

my brother shot himself a t l7 y.o.
i tell u this becoz,
the problem is real and severe and preventable…

i hope to invite women who want land and healing retreat and grow womens herbs,
see web sisterzeus.com
for indian plants to prevent pregnancy

[…] The commission has come far too late, is too small in scope, and is chaired by the wrong person. But it is important to recognize that its existence is owed to the persistent advocacy of community activists. Women’s Memorial March, for example, has been held in the Downtown Eastside on Valentine’s Day annually since 1991. […]

This is good,this Women’s March, for those of us that don’t always make it to big events cause we have a hard time in big crowds, Iwould like to thank you all for carrying on, I hope that you don’t quit, ever. The human side of our women must be acknowledged, to my sisters on the streets there are people who love you and always keep prayers going in the sweatlodge, sundance and moon ceremonies,m All my Relations.